STALKER A CI Roscamp Tale
by CI-KiteWolfling-NYPD
Summary: The First in a series. Criminal Informant Darlene Roscamp assists on a kiddnapping case that involves her own stalker, and the rest of the gang in the sixteenth precinct.
1. confrontation

As i entered the room, Stemple looked up, face radiant. It looked as though he had been crying pretty hard in there. He was gazing at me as though my presence had thrown a blanket of pure joy over him. The effect was kind of creepy. I let the door shut behind me, and, despite myself, I allowed myself to glance at the large tinted picture window. Though I couldn't see them, I knew that Elliot, Olivia, Don, and George were watching me.

I sighed wearily. It was late, late, and it was a weeknight. Gosh, I was tired! The guys had called me in at the last minute, at about nine oclock. Huang has this nastly tendancy to call me in whenever he thinks that i would get to a suspect or a wittness the most. Of course, he's not trying to be mean. I mean, it's not my fault that i have a high schooler, and i hav a crapload of homework waiting for me at home and...

"I knew you'd come see me!" Stemple said excitedly, wiping tears from his eyes. I watched the young man warily, fighting the urge to yawn. He was so alit with genuine bliss as I slipped into the seat opposite him, that I barley had the heart, or the energy, to curl my lip at him.

I folded my arms across my chest, and forced a weak smile. Just looking at this guy, you'd think he were an overactive seven-year-old meeting his baseball hero, not some dangerous stalker meeting the victim.

"How's it going, Daniel?" I asked, carefully choosing my words.

Stemple was smiling ear to ear in giddy joy, " I told them you'd come save me! I told them! And Darlene-I was right!"

I fought back the gag reflex, and tossed Veronica's case file up into the table, and flipped it open.

"Where's Veronica Willis, Daniel?" I demanded rather bluntly, pulling an 8 by 11 photo from the file, and flicking it across the table at him, "Where are you hiding her? This is your one chance to tell me."

"I didn't do anything to her!" Stemple declared, picking up the photo of the statuesque blonde with his thumb and index finger, looking at it lovingly, "I couldn't. She meant everything to me!"

"I have several witnesses at the diner who say that you were there the night that Veronica disappeared, "I continued, drumming my fingers on the table, " And don't even try to tell me that that was coincidence. You were obsessed with her. You stalked Veronica, like you're stalking me."

My last statement hung in the air, and rang like a gong. Stemple lowered his gaze as my eyes bored into his skull. The man was now seemingly intensely interested with his interlocked fingers.

"Tell me where she is!" I pressed, "Please, Daniel!"

Stemple looked up at me, and caught my gaze. I was surprised to find that this time I was the one who couldn't hold the other's eyes. Then fresh tears welled up in those baby blue eyes and his lip trembled.

"I loved Veronica!" He said softly, " I'd never hurt her. I'd never hurt anyone!"

"Daniel, you threatened to kill me several times." I sighed, "Don't give me that crap."

"Didn't!" Stemple said stubbornly, crossing his arms.

Still feeling like I was dealing with a little kid, I leaned foreword, and pulled a sheaf of papers from the file.

"I keep finding these stuck in my mailbox." I said tiredly, shuffling through them, "And a few of them are from the Willis residence. They all threaten my life, and the lives of my family members, and are signed in your hand. Now if you would me a favor, you can tell me where Veronica is, and then I can get home and do my homework, since have a monster Geometry Test tomorrow."

"I didn't write those!" Stemple said automatically

I shuffled through the papers again, and continued doggedly, "Ok, then, Daniel. here is one particularly delightful entry. 'Watch your back, before I end up putting a knife into it. I'm watching you in your sleep, I know your every move, And if you tell anyone, I will kill you where you stand.' I mean COME ON!" Here my voice rose suddenly in pitch and volume, " What kind of sick perv ARE you?"

Here I spitefully threw the pile of papers at Stemple. Some landed in his lap, but most of them drifted to the floor like dazed leaves.

"Why me?" I stood up slowly, looking so much larger than the man shrinking in the chair before me, "Why stalk me, Daniel! Why take Veronica prisoner? Why do any of the things that you do?"

"Stop-STOP!" Stemple choked, balling his fists. The tears were falling freely from his eyes now, but I didn't care.

I was seeing red. I don't know what came over me. Rage is a horrible thing, I know that from Elliot. Wild, untamed thoughts shot though my head, things that I could-should do to the man who could have killed me in a heartbeat all of the times that he had followed me. My hand strayed to where my knife was hidden in it's sheath against my side...but common sense took over, and I calmed down enough to immediately quell thoughts of stabbing the guy.

For about a minute, neither of us made a sound. We sat there in the silence, each brooding in their own thoughts. I was still standing up, probably looking very foolish. Stemple slowly began methodically tearing up one of the many papers that were on his lap.

This snapped me out of my daze.

"You're destroying evidence." I said wanly, massaging

My temples "Cut it out."

Stemple's hands were shaking as a released the scraps of paper. Once again the pair of us drifted into a ringing silence.

Eventually, about after thirty seconds, it was Stemple that broke it

"I would watch you on the news." He said in such a low voice that I had to lean in to hear him, "I would read about you in the paper, the fifteen year old hero. I wanted to be like you. I wanted to be strong, like you. I wanted to be brave. I wanted...you."

"Why Veronica?" I repeated, like a broken record, feeling hear rise up in my cheeks, and hoping dearly that Stemple couldn't see me blushing. Honestly, I'm not all that strong. I make it out of gun and boom related situations with varying mixtures of sheer, dumb luck, and more experienced and skilled friends.

Stemple shut his mouth, and didn't say a word.

I sighed, and tried to think of some clever, cliché phrase that would get the guy to talk. On all those cop shows, the detectives get these great, well written scenes. Well, where was my writer? Why did I have to be stuck in a scene with my stalker? And if this was a cop show, as my life seemed to be turning into one, then wouldn't the hero have the last, painfully corny word?

Tap, tap tap

They were calling me out. I let out another sigh, and pushed my chair back, and while it squealed against the floor in protest, I said distantly to Stemple, "Stay here."

It was only when I had crossed the room, and had one hand on the door handle, and I realized what a stupid command I had given the man. No Joke he was going to stay there. He was under arrest. I turned back to look at Stemple, opened my mouth to say something, then thought better of it, and turned the door handle, and went out. I had already lost a lot of authority with the guy-no need to bury myself any farther. Gosh- I was tired. I shook me head, and shut the door behind me

I grimaced at Elliot and the rest, "Oy."

"You're blushing, Darlene." Don commented, his hands in his pockets

I chose to ignore what he said, and turned to Doctor George Huang, who was watching Stemple with a mild expression on his face.

"You think I'm going to be able to get it out of him?" I asked, hooking my thumbs on my jeans, " He seems pretty...ah...what's the word...Stubborn?"

"This is the interesting part!" Olivia said, cocking her head, "George, why don't you tell Darlene what you were just saying a few minutes ago?"

The captain, Elliot, and Olivia were watching the man rather skeptically, and I noticed the note of challenge in Olivia's voice.

"I don't think Daniel did it." Huang said after taking a deep breath.

My jaw dropped, and as tired as I was, I laughed, "What-you're kidding, right?"

"S'what I said." Elliot grunted.

"George-There is no other person connected with Veronica who has means, motive, and the opportunity!" I said levelly, eye to eye with the Asian man, "We

have witnesses that put Stemple at the scene! He was her ! Stalker! For Gosh sakes-he was MY Stalker!"

"I just don't think that Stemple is that kind of guy!" George said mildly, "He's bent on loving and admiring his victims, there's no way on earth that he would

hurt Veronica, or you, Darlene!"

"What about those notes!" Elliot asked, still trying to make sense of the doctors statement, "You're saying Darlene and Veronica wrote death threats to themselves?"

"Could be another stalker." George shrugged.

"Another stalker?" I exclaimed, "GOSH! It is WAY too late at night for this kind of talk!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, as entertaining as this little debate is," The Captain cut in with finality in his voice, "It's going around and around in painful circles. Elliot, talk to Stemple. For the moment, we'll treat him as witness, not a suspect. See if he saw

anyone or anything following Veronica at that diner, other than himself, of course!"

"Yessir!" Elliot said, throwing his weight against the door, and entering the room.


	2. An inconvinent Monkey Wrench

"Ok." I sighed, watching Elliot circle Stemple like a bird of prey in the interrogation room," Don…where're Munch and Fin?"

"Out looking for our girl, where do you think?" The Captain sighed, and I wasn't surprised at all to see that he looked almost as tired and exhausted as I felt. It was later than I cared to be up. Like I had told Stemple, I had a bunch of homework waiting for me at home. Sometimes it's hard being a fifteen-year-old detective for the Special Victims Unit, while juggling school and a social life.

I sighed.

"Not any more we're not!" A familiar voice called out. George, Olivia, Don and I all wheeled around, and saw Munch and Fin striding towards us. They both had melted snow in their hair, as I could see. Munch gave his head a shake, sending water all over Oliva.

"Nice one, Munch." Olivia muttered.

"Find anything?" I asked Fin.

"Nada," The man growled, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his coat and scowling, "Hey Captain! Next time you're handing out assignments, make sure that Munch and I AREN'T the ones who get to run around New York with Missing Persons all day!"

I chuckled weakly, as Don said wryly, "I'll keep that in mind."

"How about you guys? Anything outta Stemple?" Munch asked, nodding his head at the door to the room.

"Nothing but a few veiled marriage proposals for our kid here!" Olivia said, elbowing me humorlessly.

"Fuh-nee." I said saradonically. I looked from Munch and Fin to George Huang,

"Truthfully, we were doing just fine until the good docter here went and threw a monkey wrench into our entire works here…."

George sighed, and rolled his eyes uncharacteristically.

"George doesn't think Stemple's our guy," Don summarized, saving the man from any further poking or prodding.

"Who else could it be?" Fin exclaimed, his eyebrow creasing.

Huang shrugged, "How am I to know? Maybe Stemple does."

"Talk to him, George," Olivia said lightly, "See what you can get from him."

"Let's hear what Ell has to say, first!" I said, crossing the hall in one bound, and flipping the switch on the speaker on the wall. I leaned against the glass, watching the two men inside.

"You like 'em young, Daniel?" Elliot demanded, tapping a forefinger on the picture of Veronica, still resting innocently on the table, " You like 'em young?"

Here Elliot got nose to nose with the man. I could Elliot was trying to fight down his poisonous rage, as was normally the case with him and Pedophiles. Stemple wasn't saying a word, crossing his arms stubbornly, jamming his chin into his chest.

"Answer me!" Elliot yelled, smacking him.

I made a convulsive movement towards the door, but Don blocked me.

"Let it go!" He said, grabbing me by the shoulders.

"Let it go?" I demanded, eyes flashing, wrestling free from his grip " NESS, Captain! You know you shouldn't have let Elliot in there! He'll kill the !"

"What's the matter, Stemple, you scared?" Elliot was raising his voice again. He reached across the table, and yanked another photo from the case file, "Does kidnapping little girls make you feel strong? An ounce less pathetic than you really are?"

"Don't…call me…PATHETIC!" Stemple was screaming now. His face was twisted in anger, pain, regret?

"Where did you take Veronica?" Elliot asked again, this time sounding a little calmer than he had before.

"I already told Darlene…..I don't…..know."

"Then what do you know, Daniel? You can at least tell us that, right?" Elliot smiled suddenly, and sank into the chair opposite the man, who was obviously shaken by the detectives mood swing, "Of course you can! That's good. Why don't you start talking to so we can all go home and call it a day?"

For about five minutes, the pair of them were silent.

"What is he trying to do? Sweat it out of him?" Olivia pressed her face against the glass, " We tried that already. The man is a rock."

"I don't know, and I don't think Elliot knows!" Fin commented.

"This is ANOTHER long shot…." I said, catching Don's eye, " But….what if George is right? What if Stemple is telling the truth? What is he is innocent, and we're setting Elliot on the wrong man?"

"We know he was stalking you, Darlene!" Munch said.

'That's not what I said, " I said, cocking my head, "I mean…..what if Daniel Stemple really is being framed?"


	3. Deliberation

Everyone traded glances, doing the, 'OK, the kid is going out on her limb again' thing, which I hate beyond all hatingness in the…ah, nevermind..

"It's a possibility!" I continued, looking from Olivia to the Captain, hoping for support from either one of them, " I mean…come on!"

"What is your deal with getting this guy off the hook, Darlene?" Munch asked me, and eyebrow raised, "He was stalking you. He threatened your life."

"And we have his signature from his work, saying that he left the building for the day!" Fin commented, indicating with a nod into the interrogation room that the evidence he was speaking of was in the case file, " Not the brightest guy to do that, then lie to us and say he was at work with no one to support his alibi!"

"Oh, believe me, I'm not trying to get Stemple off the hook about stalking me!" I said, my gaze turning hard, "But I don't think he did anything to hurt Veronica. As nutso as it sounds….I'm starting to rethink what I said before. George may be on to something!"

There was a silence, as we all glanced at the doctor. We waited for some wise words of advice, but we were horribly let down when all the man did was yawn widely.

"I think we'll all be much clearer in the morning!" The Captain said, also trying to stifle a yawn, "Let's call it a night. Daniel will have lawyered up by tomorrow, we all know that…..Darlene, have Elliot take you home, and come here first thing in the morning. I'll call your high school personally and excuse you."

"Excellent!" I exclaimed, glad to finally be done at the precinct. Then I thought about one last thing that had been tugging at my mind, "Now,….uh…captain….about Elliot taking me home…."

_WHAM!_ There was a heart stopping crash, and we all whipped around to see what was going on. It looked like Elliot had thrown something against the wall in his rage, and it turned out to be the chair. Stemple was shrinking down in his, looking like he was going to pee his pants as the enraged detective closed in.

"_WHERE IS SHE, YOU ?"_ Elliot roared, advancing.

"Yeah…on second thought, why don't I take you home?" Olivia said levelly, taking me by the shoulder and shepherding me away as Don, Fin, Munch, and George burst into the room to rescue Stemple from the claws of Elliot Stabler.


	4. Krispy Kreme? WTF

I fully understood what Don meant by, 'get here first thing' when I stumbled into the precinct at around seven that next morning. My mom had somehow semi-aroused me, and I guess I had slept on the way downtown. I mean-how lame?

"Good morning, don't you look rested?" Olivia said from behind her desk. Everyone bustling around seemed a little more on edge then they normally were. I shuffled over to Livi's desk, and helped myself to a glazed donut that was resting innocently among others. Feh. Me, looking rested? I had only woken up about a half hour ago. I don't know how these people do it.

"Krispy Kreme….MMM!" I grunted through a mouthful of pastry goodness, "Who brought these in?"

"That would be me, kid!" Much said, coming out of no where. He crossed the room in a few strides, and slipped a case file into one of the many filing cabinets, "Come on, let's go!"

"Where are we going?" I asked, inwardly groaning.

Munch pulled his coat from his chair, and said, grinning, "Well, we're checking out your theory! We're going to the factory on Collingdale where Stemple worked."

"The Steel mill?"

"Ya, come one!" Munch grabbed another donut for the road, and left the room in a hurry. I sent eyebrow messages to Oliva, and quickly left after him

_I know this chapter is a worthless blip, but bear with me, please. I am writing these during breaks at school, and I am getting distracted by a bus load of older kids_


	5. Sparks, Shrieks, and Suspicion

Unfortunately, I don't get the chance to hang with Munch so much. I am normally out with Elliot or Olivia, but when the rare day comes that I get to investigate with John de Munchie (As Olivia and I sometimes call him) It's pretty fun. His particular brand of dry, cynical humor is a lot more ticklish to me than some of the one liners Elliot pulls on the job. He has a penchant for sweets, cookies and donuts in particular. At least every other time that I show up at the station house, Munch has ordered donuts for the entire squad.

"Where's Fin?" I now called to him as we descended the stairs, and headed out to the main lobby.

"Apparently he caught a cold from running around yesterday, looking for Veronica." Munch threw over his shoulder to me, "He sounded pretty bad when I talked to him-but personally I don't think it's all that-"

"Cold…..?" I gasped as we threw open the front doors. A wall of biting, stinging New York air hit me like a physical blow as we stepped out side. It was certainly colder than it had been all week. I pulled my jacket closer around me as the snow swirled in intricate patterns.

"Lovely morning." Munch said briskly. He pulled a chain of keys from his pocket, and unlocked the door to the car, "Come on, let's go kid, before I turn into an old man."

I bit my tongue before I could say anything stupid.

It may have been freezing outside, but when we stepped into the SteelCo steel mill, it was warm, and loud. Hot and deafening, let me be more precise.

Munch and I talked to the head honcho there. David Vander Dyke. The guy looked to be in his mid thirties, tall, broad shouldered, lean, with a runners body.

"You don't look like you're the type of guy who should be doing this sort of job!" I shouted at him as we wound our way through the factory. Dave was a busy guy, and had agreed to talk to us, only if we kept pace with him, and wore safety helmets. I dearly wanted to take a picture of John walking around in a suit with a yellow plastic hard hat on, but for professional sake, I kept that urge at bay.

"I wanted to be a photographer!" David admitted. We walked past a screaming machine that tossed a handful of sparks at us, and I let a '_yip_!' out before throwing a hand across my mouth to prevent any further outbursts.

"Why aren't you?" Munch asked, apparently unfazed by all the internal clanging around the three of us, "Guy like you, you seem like the type that could pretty much do anything they wanted…"

"It's my dads buisiness, I have to keep the family spirit going on…and on…and on…" Dave grimaced, obviously lacking the very thing that he was speaking of, "You said that you wanted to talk to me about Daniel Stemple?"

"Yeah, we did?" I said in a softer voice, looking carefully around, making sure that there wasn't going to be any beasts of metal nipping at me anytime soon, "Were there any problems with the guy? Was he out of the ordinary?"

"Nah, he was a good kid!" Dave said. At that moment we walked past the biggest, loudest, screechingest machine yet. I choose to take a slight detour that brought me around the other side, yet cut off from Munch and the guy.

"_BLAST_!" I muttered, clambering over the piles of discarded scrap metal.

I made it back to where the two of them stood, in time to hear David reply, "…always punched in and out…worked overtime some times…never had a problem with him, nope! In fact, today was the only day that he hasn't shown up for work since he started here…."

I gave a derisive laugh, "He's the biggest suspect in a kidnapping right at the moment. Reason he didn't come to work, is he's locked up at SVU at the moment."

"Oh my goodness!" David covered his mouth with his dirty hand, and I had another random urge to smack the guy. Ah. Gee. I gotta keep those under control, or I could get into some serious trouble.

"Now….You said that you have Stemple's signature on his punch out sheet, right? Saying that he left on lunch break?" Munch asked, cocking his head slightly at David.

"Yeah, yeah!" David said, nodding enthusiastically.

"He said that he didn't go anywhere, though!" I said, watching David's face carefully for signs of buried emotion, "But we have his signa-…"

My voice trailed off, and I guess my mouth sorta dropped open. My mind went blank, and for a moment I couldn't hear all the banging and clanging an hullabaloo in the background anymore.

"Umm….Darlene?" Munch waved a hand in front of my face, "Darlene?"

I snapped back to reality due to a particularly nasty shriek from the random machine to our left, and I jumped about a foot in the air.

"We took copies of the punch sheet, I know that…." I said, my brow furrowed, "But can we see the real thing a sec? I want to follow a hunch!"

"Sure!" David said, seeming eager to please. He started one way, but I said quickly, "Hey-can we go the other way? Please? "

"Yeah…sure…..why?"

I refused to look at Munch as I said the following, " I really don't want to go past that one big monster type deal that likes to throw sparks."


	6. The Famillar territory of SQUARE ONE

I walked into the station house, and my cell phone rang. Recently I had changed my ring tone to Switchfoot's, 'Dirty second hands' but I don't see why that is important, now. Don't ask why I chose to include that. Uh..Anyways, Munch didn't bother to wait up for me, he just kept on with his ever so purposeful walk towards his desk, already shrugging that black trench coat off his shoulders to drape it like a cloak over his chair.

I shuffled the papers in my grasp to my other arm, fished around in my pocket, flipped it open, not even bothering to check and see who was calling, and said brusquely   
"Roscamp."

"Darlene, where are you?"

It was Elliot. I frowned, and stared at the phone, "At the one-six house, where're you?"

I looked up, and caught his gaze. Elliot was at his desk with the phone to his ear, and for one of the few times in his life he looked speechless. Feet up on the desk, too, on top of that.

I grinned, "Hey there!"

I made a beeline for him as The Captain came out of his office, slamming the door behind him, and not looking all that happy to see me or Munch, "What you got, kids?"

"Boy oh boy, have we got a treat for you, Captain!" Munch grinned. He had grabbed a donut from his desk, and was now talking around a mouthful of creamy goodness, "The squirt here followed a hunch, and look what it got us!"

Munch nodded at me, and I handed over the papers we had gotten from the steel mill to him.

Elliot rose from his chair, still looking a little red, and stood next to me as the Captain flipped through the papers.

"If this is anything less spectacular then the resurrection, you're both fired." The Captain said blandly. I could tell that he was not in a good mood at all, so I wondered how this piece of info Munch and I had dug up would faze him. I watched his face closely. It went from polite interest, to confusion, to resentment, and then finally to a sort of resigned sigh.

"You have to be kidding." He said eventually, rubbing his temples with his fingers.

"Unfortunately, no we're not." I said, cracking a weak grin, "I just had a hunch, you know..and well, we went and checked out the punch card thing…and the signatures were exactly the same."

"Well, yeah, what'd you expet?!" Elliot said, folding his arms across his chest. He obviously didn't get it.

"Use that thick head of yours for something other than hanging your face on, Ell!" Much quipped, pulling the sheaf of papers from the Captain, and thumping them against Elliot, forcing him to make a grab at them before they fell to the ground, "The first signature is an exact copy of the second. We even stopped by the lab, and did some tests on the way back here. Someone traced the second signature, forging it, and making it seem that Stemple signed out. Huang was right, he was being framed."

"Has anyone else ever noticed that Huang is always, always right…." I murmured to no one in particular, my gaze on the ceiling.

"How do we know that Stemple didn't do it himself, just to throw us off!" Elliot said. Munch and I sighed as one, but the Captain held up a hand to stop any sort of comments that Munch and I were planning on letting loose.

"He's got a point, you two! Stemple is smarter than he looks, he could be playing us!"

Personally, I thought that Elliot and Don might have missed their morning cups of coffee. Maybe I had too, since something was suddenly clear to me, something that had evaded me for the last few days.

"OK, look at It this way." I said, taking a stance, "If Stemple is so smart, why would he even have signed out, I mean, really! How dumb can you get! If I was going to go and kidnap someone during my lunch break, I wouldn't go and sign-out with the boss before hand! We all know that Stemple isn't the kind of guy who likes to parade things, I mean, it took us forever to get him to admit he was stalking me, much less Veronica-_so why sign out_?"

"So you're still sticking with the theory that Stemple is innocent?" Munch asked me.

"Yes." I sounded a little surprised at my own words, "I am."

The Captain nodded, "Alright, I want you still to keep Stemple around. He has a right to a speedy trial, but I do NOT want him going to arraignment if there is the possibility that he is an innocent man. Darlene, talk to him, Elliot go find Olivia and see what you can dig up on another possible perp. I'll get a hold of Novak, and tell her about these new interesting….circumstances."

"Great." Elliot muttered as he walked back to his desk, "The return to square one……"


End file.
